NZ Police(MIS100 2010)

By Jess Meyer | Thursday, May 27 2010

2009 ranking: 12

Senior IS executive: Murray Mitchell, ICT manager
Reports to: Deputy commissioner
Size of IS shop: 302

PCs: 6800
Mobile PCs: 1700
Terminals: 720
Hand-held devices: 100
Total screens: 9320

Industry: Government and defence
PC environment: Dell, Lenovo, Windows XP
Server environment: Dell; IBM; Sun; Windows 2000, 2003, 2008
DBMS: DB2, Oracle, SQL
Address: 180 Molesworth Street, Wellington
Website: www.police.govt.nz
Key IS projects this year: Rollout of digital radio to the four Auckland districts and Canterbury; taser firing and video capture; mobile applications for front-line police; improving core application resilience while reducing total costs; rationalisation of telecommunication services and costs.

An increase in projects this year for NZ Police will bring with it a slight increase in IT staff numbers, though general ICT budgets are down slightly. Top of mind will be the rollout of digital radio across four Auckland districts, as well as the Canterbury region. “ICT will lead the introduction of digital radio services, and maintain and enhance core application services to police staff across New Zealand,” explains ICT manager Murray Mitchell. “Additionally, it will champion business prioritisation processes and enhance core systems to meet strategic and tactical business initiatives.”

NZ Police will this year install Taser International’s evidence.com software system to monitor taser use, enable video capture, and securely store, anaylse and maintain the tens of terabytes of video data the technology is expected to generate each year.

As an early adopter, the NZ Police has been called “the first significant user of the software” by Taser International’s chief executive, Rick Smith. Videos will be tagged, allowing police to search for individual video segments by keyword, find video based on location and view footage in a secure, collaborative online environment.

Additional key projects to be completed over the next 12 months include the introduction of mobile applications for front-line police; improvement of core application resilience, whilst achieving a reduction in total costs; and the rationalisation of telecommunications services and costs nationally. Unified communications will play a large part in the latter, allowing the NZ Police to capitalise on technology to enhance communication and productivity, whilst reducing expenditure.